It has been almost a decade since WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix left WWE full time. Now, she has opened up about the conversation she had with Vince McMahon prior to her departure in 2012.
During her WWE Icons special, Phoenix said she made the decision to go home after losing a number of family members in a short period of time. She also said Vince McMahon was understanding and thanked her for what she had done for WWE. Here is the quote, courtesy of Fightful:
“My contract was expiring in October and they’re like, ‘We’d like to re-sign you. We want to talk about this.’ I lost both my Grandparents and my one uncle whom I was very, very, very close with. I lost all three of them within a timeframe of a year and I was just feeling the call to go home. I was feeling frustrated with the women. I didn’t feel like there was going to be any change.
So I had to take a deep breath and I was walking in to tell Vince that I have to go home and leave a dream that I have chased since I was a little girl and close the book. It was maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It hurt. It hurt terribly, and he said, ‘I understand.’ He gave me a huge hug and he said, ‘Thank you for everything you’ve done for me,’ and I walked out the door.”
Beth Phoenix would go on to make sporadic appearances for WWE for a number of years. She competed in the 2018 and 2020 Royal Rumble matches as well as the Women’s Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 35.
She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017 and joined the NXT commentary team in 2019.
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